Stanley Kubrick: Visual Poet 1928-1999 (Basic Film)
Category: Books,Humor & Entertainment,Movies
Stanley Kubrick: Visual Poet 1928-1999 (Basic Film) Details
About the Author Paul Duncan is a film historian who has edited 50 film books for TASCHEN, including The James Bond Archives, The Charlie Chaplin Archives and The Godfather Family Album. Read more
Reviews
This book is part of Taschen publisher’s “The Complete Films” series. As such it is relatively short at only 96 pages in length (of which about a third to a half consist of photographs). As such it, obviously, cannot provide an academic tome on its subject. The relevant question that needs to be asked is how well does it cover its subject considering the limits of its format? The answer is an excellent manner.The book provides an excellent synopsis of Kubrick the artist, from his childhood to his first films through his final, Eyes Wide Shut (according to the book he considered this his best film). According to the author, Kubrick suffered from some learning disability, possibly autism. Others would disagree with this prognosis. In the documentary DVD Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (a DVD that this reviewer highly recommends to those interested Kubrick) the argument is instead made that Kubrick only cared about what interested him and ignored everything else (as opposed to being autistic). But, either way, his father provided him with extensive schooling outside of and in addition to his formal schooling. His father also was responsible for giving him a passion for literature, chess and photography. His father, being a medical doctor, could afford to buy him a professional twin lens camera as a child, something that parents of lesser means could not afford. This interest in photography played a very important role in his filmmaking. Literature also served Kubrick well as it played a pivotal role in his films. Kubrick thought that story and plot lines were of the utmost importance and he found inspiration in serious literature throughout his life. Even chess was important to his filmmaking in that, in his own words, it required him to think ahead in terms of the filmmaking process and not just accept immediate aesthetics in, say, the immediate shoot. As a child and early adult, Kubrick also had school mates and friends that fit in with this filmmaking career. He had class mates who were serious photo buffs with darkrooms, with musical ability and with writing ability (one was later a Pulitzer Prize winner). Everything fell into place in his childhood. It reminds one of Jung’s theory of synchronicity.He was an exceptionally gifted photographer as can be seen by the fact that Look magazine, one of the leading pictorial publications of the time, bought a photography of his when he was only 16 years old and made him a staff member shortly afterwards. One also learns that Kubrick was quite introverted, withdrawn and shy. Many thought he would never make a director as a result. But behind the camera he was very demanding and domineering. Things had to be his way with no compromise.The book then goes into his cinema graphic career. From his very first films shows that he is a prodigy despite the limited budgets he had to work with. The book then goes through and discusses the remaining of his films in detail and with a good analysis regarding what inspired him and why they worked. The book, as usual for a Taschen publication, is also richly illustrated in high quality photographs and printed in almost museum quality. Very impressive and surprising for only a $10 book.In short, an excellent succinct overview of not only Kubrick’s films but also of Kubrick the filmmaker.
